July 20th 2014 vs Claudelands Women’s B
$10 Brown-Eyes & An Interesting Ref
It was a beautiful sunny day at Galloway Park, the colours of the mud and grass reflected luminously off the pitch. As the team of female Unicorns were warming up, one of them galloped away and returned a minute or two later with a gigantic smile on her face. Little did some of us and Claudelands know what she had been up to, but nothing was revealed until the after-match feed. Brown-eyes aside, Unicol was gearing up for what we mistakenly thought would be an easy-ish win, considering we won 5-0 last time our two teams met. But man were we in for a shock! Claudelands started the game as they intended to carry on with fast, strong passes that within the first 10mins of the game led to a free kick. While Unicol was setting up what would normally be an impenetrable wall, Claudelands quickly took the kick before the wall was ready and the ball somehow ended up at the top left of the 6 yard box to a player who was ready and waiting to strike. A missed tackle by a Unicorn defender and the fumbling of the ball by the Goalie helped Claudelands to score the first goal of the game.
The Unicorns were rather unimpressed with the early goal to say the least and this fired them up. Our attackers and mids worked hard to move the ball up the wings and towards the goal several times and had a multitude of shots both outside and inside the 18 yard box which ping-ponged off the cross-bar and off the posts twice. This still did not quench our thirst to even the score and we bided our time. Player of the day Safari, the trickiest player on the field took a chance when the Unicorns were awarded a corner kick. She absolutely smashed the hell out of the ball which whizzed past everyone in the 6 yard box and it landed at lovely Lou’s feet. Lou then took a composed touch and brilliantly knocked the ball into the back of the net to equal the score as the rest of the Unicorns galloped around joyously.
With 1 goal under our belt, we were even more determined to score another goal. Again Unicol worked the ball up their wings numerous times and were unlucky in scoring. Claudelands weren’t willing to give up the fight either and sent some long balls down towards the Unicorn Goalie who with the help of the pressure the Unicorn backs were placing on the attackers, saved some few bullseye shots. With not long to go until fulltime, Unicol broke through the Claudelands’ midfield and attackers again and had an awesome shot on goal that definitely looked like it was over the line when the Goalie grabbed at it. The Ref who had been making some interesting calls (to say the least) all game decided that the ball wasn’t over the line at all, much to the disbelief of the supporters on the side-line, one whom the Ref threatened to send off.
The fulltime whistle went and both teams looked absolutely shattered! It was a tough, intense battle out there and full credit goes to both teams and their awesome supporters who never gave up. Thankyou Claudelands for also supplying a delicious after match feed (the mini cupcakes were a favourite with our team)!
